CHANGE --- Smilies of the Damned

[Ragnar]

The standard emoticons have been replaced as follows:

With

If acceptable, then more from the same set may be added: or others if found.
Should people have become so attached to the old familiar faces that they are desolate, the ancients may easily be restored. Alternatively any other emoticon sets may be suggested. These may not be perfect, but at least they are .pngs, which is generally preferable, and less intensive.


It should be noted that smilie-replacement is rightly considered one of the trades dangerous to sanity --- one admin found on Google stated flatly that she would close the board rather than do that again --- yet it is probable that the most fearful part is the hunt itself: a search on Google Images for 'smilies', or 'smilie packs' or 'emoticons' will throw up such horrors as will blench the minds of the mentally less fortunate.




Which is nearly everybody, in fact.

 

[Ragnar]

Poll

Poll here for opinions.

But replies are best to gauge views.

 

[Ogion]

Sorry but "Apathetic" just was too awesome to not vote :P
Anyway, even though i like oldstyle smilies better (more flat, not this pseudo 3D) i think those new ones are fine as well. The thing about smilies is, the more you have, the more people want to have more I would vote for not getting more thus.

Ogion

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Had to go with old. I found a site where I could choose from a bunch and just c&p them here easy enough....except when the spam catcher gets them.

An admin may be the first to know what I mean.....

 

[echoplex]

I prefer the old ones, but it's not a big deal to me. I guess I'm just used to them and all that. I think the new ones look better but I'm so used to when and how to use the old ones. It also seems that the new ones are not as convincing in terms of the emotions they're trying to emulate. For example, the "embarrassment" smilie doesn't look as embarrassed as the old one, imo.

And why do we have an airplane now?








hmmm, it also looks like a strange kind of gun

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Spam catcher makes me do this.

 

[Anthile]

I don't like the old ones with their random colours.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

I'm not really sure which way my views go, so I'll just make a few comments in both directions...

I like the clear distinctions between the old ones a lot... the new ones resemble each other far more in both color and expression...

The new ones fit in more seamlessly, which I definitely like - the white pixelation border the old ones have is annoying.

And yet the new ones are a bit larger than necessary, making them a bit obtrusive...

So, hm...

* * * * *
​

Is the change eventually going to apply to the posting icons as well?
​

 

[Ragnar]

Yes, I am looking at the post icon manager now, it is entirely separate from emoticons. However it might be better to have some other set of dedicated post icons apart from whichever smilies are selected.

 

[fullerene]

It's tough. I got sort of addicted to the old ones, but this was my first online forum, so I think I'm just used to them. I thought they were more expressive than all the other sites I've seen, though, despite being grainy.

When I first saw the new ones popping up in posts (before this thread), I thought "what the hell? Those are ugly," but in the last half hour or so, they've been growing on me a lot.

I'm gonna hold off voting for another day or so, and see how I feel about them after that.

 

[Ermine]

For some reason, I like old school smilies in general. However, I think they can be added to. Here would be some examples from another forum. Just something a bit more fun and expressive.

 

[Auburn]

I had grow a bit attached to the old ones, as I know some others here have. Some of the forum culture had been based on it, such as Noddy's constant paranoia with this smiley --->

. Much of that will be lost with the change of smileys.

And it wouldn't have been too hard to remove the white pixels. I could have done that easily ^^;. But *sigh* I can't stay stuck in the past, so I suppose I'll welcome the new change. I really don't mean to be pessimistic - change is always rather uncomfortable at first I suppose, but it gets better after a while.


Anyhow, just a little something related. These are some smileys that I use elsewhere. The bottom half of them I made myself. I like them because they're mellow but still expressive, and not too big.

​

 

[Kuu]

the old ones seemed to be much more expressive and distinct, the newer ones look... bland and emotionless. Their annoying white pixels were part of their imperfect charm.

Though if you decide to keep them newer ones, I understand the pains of emoticon-searching.

But we do need a *evil scheming* and a *head-desk* one

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

i like the old ones

 

[Fedayeen]

I like the new ones with 2 exceptions

1) the shades one looks like shit, it is because the shades are translucent, and not opaque.

2) No more blue noddy emotes

EDIT: I kinda like these, they have a bit more flair then the new and old set in 1st post.

 

[walfin]

The new are brighter, but I miss fish-eyes.

More smilies please.

 

[Fleur]

I prefer the old ones. They are more subtle and homely; the new ones seem to be impersonal and somewhat reminds of faked emotions.

But perhaps I am just accustomed.

 

[loveofreason]

I'm desolate!

I do like Auburn's emoticons though. Understated emotion.

 

[Ragnar]

I too like Auburn's since they are less violent than the new, and less web1998 than the old: the only thing is they are slightly tiny.*



* "A bit smorl, isn't he ?", as the bird nesting in Arthur Dent's statue remarked of Mr. Dent standing within the said giant statue.

 

[loveofreason]

Hehe... let's umm... try another euphemism.

"petite"?

...look into the face of the kitty-con...

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

i actually really dislike the new ones

 

[Fukyo]

-is ugly and doesn't look like a cool grin at all.

-isn't nearly evil looking enough.We need more evil smileys.

-looks like it had a stroke that left a side of it's face paralyzed with the tongue just hanging out...eww.

 

[Jesin]

I don't really like the new smilies that much, but now that we know PNG smilies work, that opens up a bunch of possibilities.

I'll look into the format for uploading them. I'd like to be able to replace smilies myself so I don't have to get Ragnar to do it. I will post other smilies here for approval first, though.

And yeah, I liked the old better.

Getting rid of the white dots and turning them partly transparent by converting to PNG shouldn't be too hard. I'll see what I can do about stuff, probably when I get home.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

- looks angry not sad

i think the old 'sad' emoticon looked very sad, not angry

we need both

 

[Anthile]

Okay, am I the only one who dislikes both?

 

[Jesin]

Oh, by the way, I was not talking about using the old smilies again. I dunno, the set that the old came from might be worth looking into. Or something else. I dunno, I'll look at some things. I have to go do something else right now, though.

 

[Auburn]

Hehe... let's umm... try another euphemism.

"petite"?

...look into the face of the kitty-con...

*meow*

And, oh wow, I wasn't really expecting for mines to appeal to anyone...

I like the 15x15 size smileys with gradient coloring because they don't cause a major indent in the spacing of paragraphs - and the gradient background gives them a modern feel while still being very basic.

Mm, the next size up would probably be 18x18? something like this:

Sorry, I did those really fast so they have the white border

 

[Ogion]

I like Auburns smilies.

Ogion

 

[Toad]

I quite enjoy the new ones.

 

[preilemus]

between the two, i pick the old ones.seriously, they just seem to have more personality

 

[Ragnar]

...but now that we know PNG smilies work, that opens up a bunch of possibilities.

I'll look into the format for uploading them. I'd like to be able to replace smilies myself so I don't have to get Ragnar to do it. I will post other smilies here for approval first, though.

*.png smilies work if, and only if, they are uploaded and pathed within /images/smilies --- for the attempt at having clear boundaries, I first attempted to keep different sets each in their own sub-directory and map there: vbulletin doesn't accept this; despite offering the ability ( it would be better if they had the option only of using /images/smilies with a closed box, but vbulletin is a harsh mistress ).

The only smilie to be sacrosanct is phear.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

Honestly, I'm all for the keeping the old ones, *with removal of the tacky pixels if it can be done, *and with conversion to .png files if that makes their incorporation into the site easier...

At a guess, both of these things could be done, right? Additions to the collection would be pretty interesting, though.

Also, it's probably just me but I find handed-smilies distasteful, myself. I'm sorry I'm knocking your work, Auburn.
​

 

[Auburn]

Also, it's probably just me but I find handed-smilies distasteful, myself. I'm sorry I'm knocking your work, Auburn.
​

...it's alright... ^^;;
I know I have very little talent for making smileys...

And I agree. The former set would be good - just with some minor touch-ups.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

...it's alright... ^^;;
I know I have very little talent for making smileys...

Don't get me wrong... That is no comment about your skill - they look as flawlessly done as any I've seen.

I just see hands on them and think... ah... *Engage Bias*
​

 

[saffyangelis]

We could edit the hands off or something if we did use them, but hands would mean a facepalm smilie, which would be nice =)

(I do prefer the old ones to the new ones though... I don't use the smilies much, but I do miss seeing them all in the posts, and the new ones just seem odd to me, although it might be because they're new, and I haven't adjusted yet)

 

[lightspeed]

The new ones are good, and distinct from another site. I especially like the cat.

 

[fullerene]

I think I've settled on "the old", but really like the idea of touching them up a little bit... getting rid of the spotty white borders and stuff like that. I'm not sure how easy it is to do, though.

I think they just convey the emotions a bit better. The tongue sticking out one (probably the most used... and certainly most used by me, for sure) looks a whole lot better than the new one, too, or is the difference negligible?


Do these slightly modified ones look any better? The original is on the left, and the slightly-modified one is on the right. It took barely any work at all, but I thought it made a pretty noticeable diference. What do you guys who said they liked the old ones think? Should I mess with the others in the set too?

 

[Sapphire Harp]

I like what you're creating, Cryptonia. I'd recommend those as the basic set. Can you make them as .png files? That's what Ragnar needs, isn't it?

But additions beyond the basic collection would be great, as well... (Cat included?)
​

 

[fullerene]

thanks . Ok... I'll go through and mess with the other ones, too, then. Those that I attached are PNG files, so they should be able to save the images I upload and use those. I just wasn't sure how to put them "in" the posts like other people did... so I left them as attachments. It's pushing 2:00 here, though, so I'll do the rest tomorrow.

I agree that the cat is awesome, and that adding some new ones in would make nice additions. I don't think that having a single "set" is all that necessary.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

Well, there is a default set that is applied to ones referenced by text arrangements, right? When Ragnar updated the basic set of smilies, he changed them everywhere back to the beginning of time... That's what I was talking about.
​

 

[fullerene]

ahh right, right. I gotcha. yeah... i think the forum registers a ": )" to come up as a certain one, and when he changed the mapping, it changed everyone's old smileys into the new ones. It actually made it a bit hard to find the two that I did, because they don't show up in posts anymore (had to take them from the thread headers, when people set a thread to use them)

 

[cheese]

I definitely prefer the old ones. The new ones look like extrovert psychopaths.


*edit
Didn't see poll :S

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Personally I just want the green grin back, the new one is just a smile, it doesn’t convey the ear-to-ear glee.

 

[walfin]

Can we have all the smileys animated?

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Personally I just want the green grin back, the new one is just a smile, it doesn’t convey the ear-to-ear glee.

YES! That smiley also has an air of mischief to it that is lost with the new smileys.

 

[Anthile]

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

^^^ That's the little bugger!

 

[fullerene]

akh... y'beat me to it, haha. Since I'd already made it, though, then I may as well repost it... so this is how mine ended up turning out. Similar, just minus the shine.

 

[Anthile]

If we can suggest completely new emoticon packages I suggest green smilies: http://www.greensmilies.com/smilie-album/

Yeah, it's a German site but most are language-neutral.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

Anthile: YES!!!

can we have ALL of them

if not all, definitely the Horror ones

these are actually useful, for example...

"god, some nights i just don't get any sleep and come morning i am like a zombie